Wow,I´m in Paris!
by Zandrah
Summary: Have you ever thought, what would it be like if you were in Paris in the 20th century?Sara appears to Christian´s flat and meets Christian and Toulouse.Read more...
1. Default Chapter

This idea came to my head one night I was watching television and thinking about all things possible. I just wanted to write some kind of a Moulin Rouge- story. I hope you will like it. And I don´t own Moulin Rouge characters as you too know. Only Sara is mine. "She´s mine!" like the Duke would say. Ok, here it is.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Have you ever just sat down and thought about your life? Everything you´ve done or experienced? I have and always it makes me feel sad. I don´t know why, but every time I get the feeling that I haven´t done anything yet, that I haven´t lived. Maybe that doesn´t seem very serious because I´m just 16, but it´s so distressing feeling. I get this feeling every time when I watch something very sad or dramatic movie. Just like Moulin Rouge is.  
  
I was watching Moulin Rouge (for about 5th time) on a very boring Friday-night. I hadn´t had the energy to go anywhere, so I just sat home. I was very tired, because the school week had been really tough and stressing with it´s exams. The clock was almost twelve, but I did not want to go sleep yet. So I sat nodding on the couch, my eyes almost closed, dreaming about Ewan McGregor (or Christian) singing love songs for me, when I suddenly felt dizzy. I felt like the room was going around and I started to feel sick. I almost throw up when the spinning suddenly ended. I think my best friend would say: "Wow, that was GREAT! Let´s take another spin!" but I´m not so into of speed. Maybe I´m a little wimp, but hey, I´m just protecting myself. "Protecting yourself about fun," my friend would say but I´m not so daring like she is.  
  
So the spinnig stopped and when I looked around I realized I wasn´t in my own room anymore. The room was dark, curtains were closed. I opened the curtains and started to investigate the room. The room was furnished very ascetic, there was only a bed, some kind of closet, a wooden chair, a desk and a typewriter on the desk. There hadn´t cleaned for a long time, the room was vey messy. There was empty bottles and crumpled paper sheets everywhere. I noticed the typewriter wasn´t a modern one, it was black, big and awkward. There was a sheet on the machine and I was going to read it when I heard loud singing. "Chiiildren of the revoluuution, yeah! It´s called freedom, beauty, truth and loooove!" two men were singing and I think they were climbing up the stairs. They got angry "Shut up!"- and "Keep quiet"- shoutings while they were singing. The other voice sounded very familiar. Could it be..?  
  
The door was opened and I must have looked very funny when I saw the men´s faces. They were Toulouse and Christian! They looked also very dumbfounded. "Wh-who are you?" Toulouse stuttered. I swallowed and said: "I´m Sara." "Hello, my name is Henry Marie Raymond Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa and this here is Christian," Toulouse said pointing at Christian.  
  
"I prefer just Toulouse," I said because I remembered that all called him like that in the movie.  
  
".so excuse me for forgetting, but these things I doooo. U see I´ve forgotten if they´re green or they´re blueeee. Anyway the thing is well I really mean YOURS ARE THE SWEETEST EYES I´VE EVER SEEN!" Christian sang on a drunken voice and danced around the room. Ok, I got my love songs from Christian, but I didn´t mean that he´d be drunk! So, I think you understand, it didn´t sound very flattered.  
  
"I think somebody has been celebrating too much," I said to Toulouse who was not so drunk.  
  
Toulouse tried to keep Christian, who was staggering, on his feet and said: "Yes, I tried to say him not to drink so much, because he has a job interview tomorrow morning."  
  
Christian was trying to stay up on his own feet and sang: "I hope you don´t mind, I hope you don´t mind, that I´ve put down in words: how wonderful life is NOW YOU`RE IN THE WORLD!" After he had noticed that Toulouse and I were holding our ears he stopped and shouted: "I´m not going there! I´m not gonna go anywhere! You can keep your stupid interviews!"  
  
I turned to Toulouse and asked: "What job interview does he have tomorrow?"  
  
"It´s into a newspaper. Christian is a good writer and I think that he would get the job if he just got there," Toulouse said raising his voice in the end but Christian didn´t hear. He had more interesting things to thought: he was trying to take his shoes off and that seemed very hard to him at that moment.  
  
"But well! I´ve been so busy that I haven´t asked how did you got there? Emm, I don´t mean that you´d have to go away, but. I´m just interested," Toulouse asked now.  
  
I couldn´t say that "I was just watching Moulin Rouge, and oops! Then I just disappeared here!" because I didn´t want to explain them everything. It would take too much time. So I just said: "I have been looking for a new apartment, and when I passed by and saw this place from the window I just loved it and asked the landlady to open the door." Luckily I had opened the curtains. I was a big liar, I would never like to live in an apartment like this. But that was the best I thought up at the moment.  
  
Toulouse looked around and lifted his right eyebrow up. I think he was wondering how somebody could be so strange, that would like an apartment like this. "Well, I must let Christian sleeping now," he said. "I hope we will meet again!"  
  
He almost run out of the door and I didn´t manage to ask about "where I could sleep?" or "can I stay here over the night?". Christian wasn´t able to answer to me so I made my own conclusion, that I can stay right here. So there I was sitting on the floor wondering where I could go to sleep. After a quick search I didn´t found any place else than the bed where Christian was snoring loudly, and I went to sleep beside him. As far of him as possible, because I didn´t want seem intrusive (but I don´t think he would noticed anything, because he was sleeping like a log).  
  
I must be very tired, because I fell asleep as soon as I went to bed. And how did I fell asleep at all when he was snoring and the bed was so hard! I think my last thought was: my back will be very aching at morning.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The end is not so good. But I like the starting, don´t know do you like. So, dear readers (if somebody even reads this) please rewiew, if you have time! It makes me so happy to get rewiews, even the negative ones. Sara may seem very boring, but she´s like me. It´s so much easier to choose a character who is like me than somebody who is not-so- like-me. But don´t care about her, care about the whole! I´ll try to write more as soon as possible. 


	2. 2

I´ve got rewiews! Thank you!* sings and dances like a crazy* Tell me, do I have lots of writing errors? I haven´t got used to write in English, because I´m Finnish. Well, I´ll let you back to the story.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
I woke up when the morning´s first sun rays intruded of the window. (damn the curtains!) Christian was still sleeping. I stretched my arms and stand up carefully because I didn´t want to wake Christian. Poor Christian. He´s going to have a terrible headache when he wokes up. Or do you get a hangover drinking absinth? Actually I don´t know. I´ve never had an opportunity to taste it.  
  
I was a bit hungry, but where would I get food right now? Nowhere. Then I remembered the typewriter and the sheet on it. Should I read it? Maybe a little bit, Christian doesn´t notice! So I sat down and started to read it. Dear Satine, it said, you´d want me to write our story. Many days and weeks I wasn´t able to do it... And maybe I´m not yet, but let´s try...  
  
I couldn´t read forward, because somebody came in. I stand up quickly and saw that the comer was Toulouse. He was wearing silly clothes and strange make-up. He looked like a clown or pantomimic.  
  
"Christian! Wake up! You´ll need to get to the interview!" Toulouse shouted. He reminded my mother. It´s so irritating when somebody is screaming next to your ear early in the morning when you´d just like to sleep! That´s one of the few moments when I´d like to hit somebody.  
  
Christian mumbled something and I think he was thinking a same as I do in the mornings, because he was trying to find something to throw, eyes still closed. Suddenly there flew a shoe very near of Toulouse´s head. "Oops, you missed!" Toulouse laughed. I shaked my head and smiled. They are crazy, but funny. I wish everybody would be like they. Everyone just stares at me at school when I´m doing something crazy. Except my friends. Luckily they are like me!  
  
Christian crawled out under his blankets and kneaded his head. "Oh God, this headache is killing me! Wish I hadn´t drink so..." he stopped when he saw me. He squinted and said to Toulouse pointing at me: "Did I..? I mean is she..?"  
  
"No, I´m not a whore and no, I didn´t sleep with you," I said.  
  
"I didn´t mean that," Christian said embarrassed. "I just wanted to know did I come here with you, and who you are?"  
  
"I am Sara, and I was looking for an appartment. Then I saw yours and the landlady opened the door," I said trying to stay in the original story.  
  
"And Sara likes your pad," Toulouse said eagerly and checked his pocket watch. "But now you´ll have to hurry! The interview is at nine and it´s almost half nine!"  
  
Christian looked a bit fed up. "Yes, yes, mum," he said quietly and Toulouse hurried to the door and shouted: "And don´t forget to put your suit on!"  
  
Now he certainly sounded like my mother! And why is he always rushing somewhere? He´s like the busy rabbit from the Alice in Wonderland. Always running with his pocket watch.  
  
Christian was now shaving his beard and humming some melody. His hand shook and he got a little cut to his chin. "Damn!" he shouted angrily.  
  
"A bad hangover?" I asked after listening a few cusswords.  
  
Christian turned at me and looked a bit surprised. Apparently he had thought that I had went with Toulouse. "Y-yes," he said pressing a paper on his chin.  
  
"I know what helps with a headache," I said and pressed the nerve between my thumb and second finger. "See, just press there and the pain fades away."  
  
He did what I told and said: "Hey, that works! Are you some kind of a doctor?"  
  
I laughed and said: "No. But I think you´ll have to go now, if you want to get to the interview. Can I come with you, so I could buy something to eat?"  
  
Christian nodded and told me to go waiting downstairs until he´d change his clothes.  
  
I went down and saw the city behind hundred years. There was lots of people, but no cars. Nobody seemed to have rush anywhere, everybody was just walking slowly. The atmosphere was like in the paintings of Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec, ordinary, but happy. I also realized that my outfit was quite different than theirs, I had jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. But I decided not to care about that. I looked ten times more ordinary beside Toulouse´s clothes! But maybe it´s some trend there, who knows? Yeah right, Toulouse is strange. But I like him.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That was a short chapter, but it was a good place to stop. 


	3. 3

Hello, there I am, finally. What do you think about this story? Do you want more? Do you want romance? Action? Drama? Do you want to laugh? Cry? (I will make you cry, even if I don´t write sad things... ) So, if you read this story and you have time, please rewiew! Negative, positive, anything! Ok, I´ll write more, even if you don´t want it ;)  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I was just wondering where I could get some money to buy food, when Christian came down. He was wearing dark brown suit and his hair was combed back. "Wow, you look...good," I said as soon as I saw him. Actually he looked more than just good, he looked very handsome! Maybe I looked at him a little too long, because he looked uneasy.  
  
"Th-thank you," he said. "Let´s go then! We´ll need to run if we´ll want be there on time." He started to run.  
  
I ran after him. He ran very quick, I had problems to stay behind him. It was a bit weird to run in the street, when there were no cars on it. I tried to avoid people who were walking in the street but with bad results: I crashed into a man who was standing in the middle of the street. "I´m sorry, but I have a big rush!" I said and started to run again.  
  
Christian had stopped now amd turned around, but I didn´t see it because I was looking behind me. I crushed into him and almost made him fall. But luckily he stayed up. "I- I am so sorry. I didn´t see you stopping," I said ashamed. Christian just laughed. "Oh, I haven´t laughed like this in a long, long time! Wish you´d had seen your face!" he said behind his laugh.  
  
A little hint of a smile came to my face. I usually make everybody laugh with my stupid tricks. I also noticed that Christian had a dimple in his left cheek. I love dimples, they´re so cute! When I was a kid, I thought that you can make dimples just pressing long enough on your cheek. So I pushed my cheeks to make them. All I got, was just little bruises in my cheeks.  
  
I realized that we had arrived to the newspaper´s office. A fine- dressed man with a young woman walked towards us. They looked very rich and behaved like that. "Move, boy, we are going in," man said. He was wearing black suit and a top hat and looked at us very arrogantly. When I saw his face, I noticed that he was the Duke!  
  
Christian saw it too and his face turned very angry. He was biting his lip not to say something unsuitable for Duke. His date was looking at my clothes amusingly. Maybe I looked a bit odd, because I was wearing trousers instead of the skirt. Or maybe she was just a snob.  
  
The woman whispered something to Duke´s ear and they both barked with laughter. They went inside the office and Christian said then: "He is the most irritating and slickest man in the world!"  
  
I nodded understandingly. "I hate those high-class snobs too. Only thing they care about is money."  
  
Christian sighed. "It´s not just that, he..." he stopped suddenly, like he had said too much.  
  
"I think you´ll must go now," I said to him.  
  
"Oh, yes. Bye then!" he said and started to climb the stairs. I wawed him.  
  
Now I remembered my hunger and started to find a place where I could find something to eat. I found a nice little cafe which was full of people. I noticed that almost everyone there was rich, they were dressed very fine. I saw a woman and man by the table in the back of the room. They were drinking something, absinth I think. Woman stared forward her, eyes glazed. She looked very sad. Though she was wearing fine clothes, they looked little shabbied. The man next to him was smoking his pipe and staring people passing by.  
  
I walked to counter and looked at the menu. I decided to take toasted bread and bacon. When I started to pay, I remembered my situation about money. "I´ve forgotten my money home. But can I pay with my wristwatch? Its wristband is silver," I said and showed it to the salesman.  
  
"I´m sorry, but we take only cash. There´s a pawnshop behind the corner. Try there," he said. I thanked him and went out.  
  
My tummy growled because of the hunger, but I couldn´t help it. So I decided to find that pawnshop and after a short searching I found it. There was no one inside, except the salesman of course. I showed my wristwatch and he promised me 50 francs, which is quite a lot.  
  
I went back to the cafe and ordered toasted beard and bacon and a cup of coffee. The woman and man I told you about was now gone and instead of them I saw Duke and his date. They were drinking coffee and talking politely with their friends. Luckily Christian wasn´t here.  
  
When I was finishing my coffee I heard a voice shouting: "Sara! Nice to see you again!" I turned around and saw Toulouse with his silly clothes. I suppressed my laugh, he looked so funny.  
  
"What brought you there?" he asked and sat next to me.  
  
"Hunger," I said. "And what brought YOU? And what´s that costume? Sorry, but you look like a clown!"  
  
Toulouse laughed and said: "I tried a day being a pantomimic. And got lots of money!"  
  
"Maybe I should try it too," I laughed. "Hey, but have you seen Christian? He went to the interview an hour ago."  
  
Toulouse knitted his brow. "No. Maybe the employer has brought him to coffee or something. Now you´ll need to see something. Come!" he said and took my hand.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "I don´t like the ending!" like Duke would say. I hope you do. 


	4. 4

Thank you Andunewen and Lotr-junkie, you´ve encouraged me to go on with this (strange) fanfic. You are wonderful! The end of the previous chapter was maybe too irritating, but "I hope you dont mind...". Why do I always keep quoteing lines from the Moulin Rouge?! It´s because I´m so crazy about it, I think. Moulin Rouge is my drug, and The Lord of the Rings too, of course.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I couldn´t say anything like: "Hey, I haven´t drunk my coffee yet!" or "I don´t wanna run after dinner!" because Toulouse was having so hurry to show me something "what kind you´ve ever seen". We ran among people, who were walking slowly or standing and talking to each other. Again, I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Now I didn´t crash into anybody, fortunately.  
  
When we got to our destination, I was so tired and winded that I could hardly breath. The "race" seemed to be nothing to Toulouse. "Are you some kind of a competition runner, or what? And why do you both, you and Christian, have to run me all over around the town?! " I asked still puffing. Two race runnings in a day was too much for me.  
  
Toulouse smiled. "I´ve just been practising," he said. I realized that because they don´t have cars, they use foots and bikes instead. That would do great for me. And to everybody. People have become too lazy, because we don´t need to use our foots anywhere. Even bills can be paid by sitting nowadays. And walking and bicycling is nicer to nature. As I was thinking my inflammatory speech to the human race, Toulouse was opening the lock of the door with his keys. "Come on in," he requested me and opened the door.  
  
There was dark inside and Toulouse lighted a kerosene lamp. "Look out the threshold, it´s very high," he said. It wasn´t so high, but maybe it is high to a midget. I looked around me and saw lots of paintings. "Are these all yours?" I asked while I was walking further. Paintings were very fine.  
  
"Yes, they are. And welcome to my `centre of the art´! Sorry about this mess, but I don´t usually bring guests here, only Christian has seen this before," Toulouse said regretting.  
  
Toulouse wasn´t exaggerating. There was quite a bad chaos in the room, Empty colour tubes, broken brushes, soiled and crumpled papers and empty absinth bottles were lying everywhere on the floor. But I didn´t say anything because my room looks kind of the same, except when I have had a itch for cleaning. And because Toulouse is a bohemian artist. "I know the artists," I just said and Toulouse nodded accepting.  
  
There was about ten or twelve paintings, some of them were ready and some still half-finished. Though I don´t know much of the art, I think those pictures were very professional. There were ordinary people in them, people sitting in cafés, people walking and talking. There were many paintings of dancing women. Two of the paintings were like directly from the Moulin Rouge-movie. "Are these from... Moulin Rouge?" I asked staring at the other one, which was portraying can-can dancers with their amazing movements.  
  
"Yeah, so you know the place?" Toulouse asked interested.  
  
"Emm... I´ve heard about it. But I´ve never been there. Is it so great like they talk?" I had thought about that when I had watched Moulin Rouge at home.  
  
"Yees, and more! Music, lights, dancing! It´s a experience everyone must to undergo once in their life! I can come with you if you want to see it," Toulouse said with enthusiasm. Then he continued: "I guess, you don´t live here in Paris?"  
  
"No, and not in France," I said concentrating to picture which had captured a party of fine-dressed people chatting. "I think these paintings are wonderful! Do you sell them?"  
  
Toulouse shook his head. "I don´t know who would buy them. You see, I don´t really know these `snob-people´, if you know what I mean."  
  
I smiled at him. "If I had enough money, I´d buy one right away!" An original painting from the end of the 19th century would look good on my wall.  
  
"You can have one! The one you like so much," Toulouse said.  
  
I shook my head. "No, I can´t take it. I don´t mean that I don´t like them, but..." I appreciated Toulouse´s gesticulation, but I couldn´t take his works of art without paying.  
  
"It´s a gift from a friend!" Toulouse tried.  
  
"But I don´t even have a wall to put it on. I am still searching for a flat." It was a little white lie, but in this case necessary.  
  
Toulouse wrinkled his forehead. "Then we´ll have to find you a one. I´ll ask someone if he knows any rented flats. And where were you going to stay over the night?" he asked.  
  
"I was thinking a hotel or motel..." I said slowly.  
  
"You can sleep in my place," Toulouse said so quickly, that I couldn´t end my sentence.  
  
I sighed. He was so sweet. "You´re too nice for me. We hardly know each other!"  
  
"I know you good enough. I´m a good people-expert, and I know you´re a good person," Toulouse said saddenly seriously. "And besides, haven´t you been taught that refusing from a friend´s offer isn´t one of the good manners..."  
  
"Ok, you convinced me!" I laughed. "But I´ll pay you something when I´ll get a job."  
  
"Yes, yes," Toulouse said like he wouldn´t had taken me seriously. "Hey, we´ll have to celebrate our new friendship!" He digged a cigar from his pocket and lighted it. He took one breath and asked: "Would you like some?"  
  
I was thinking to refuse, but Kelly - that´s my other name and my other, not so boring person who was taking an order in my mind (no, I´m not a psycho...) - wanted to take the opportunity. "Ok, but just one breath, because I don´t want to have a cancer or something and die," I said (Sara was coming...). Toulouse looked a bit surprised and lighted another. Maybe the enlightenment about smoking was not so good in the 19th century...  
  
I tasted the cancer-bar, which tasted like you would have eaten an old dirty sock, when I suddenly heard somebody saying: "Do you know, women look kind of sexy when they´re smoking cigars."  
  
I coughed and looked where the sound was heard. Christian was standing at the door. "I could take too," he said.  
  
"You can have mine," I said and handed it to Christian. He took one long breath.  
  
"So, how was the interview? Did you get the job?" Toulouse asked after a long uneasy silence.  
  
"Like a hell! Duke was the owner of the place and also the interviewer. So I just told him to go to hell and took off!" Christian said. He was drunk like a cuckoo.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That was kind of a weird place to stop, but I am weird... *sings ´Come what may´ and writes in madness* Tell me what you like! 


End file.
